Contents

• Introduction
• Alternate League Rules
•     - Preliminary Notes
•     - Starting a New Team
•     - Playing Alternate League Matches
•     - Player Advancement
•     - Hiring and Firing
•     - Random Events
•     - Player Position
•     - Tips on Founding an Alternate League
• Optional Rules
• Appendix I: Star Player Quirks
• Appendix II: Racial Player Position tables
• Appendix IV: Random Events

Hate reading manuals? These rules are pretty long (although happily slimmed down in this edition) and include a lot of me rambling on and pontificating about Blood Bowl, and assorted other fluff. If you want to get to the meat of what all this is about, head for the Player Advancement section, which describes the most important differences in these alternate rules. Alternatively, if you just want some cheap amusement before you decide whether you want to get your head around the rules themselves, head for the Star Quirks section, or the Random Events section, where you will find a lot of the fun (or misery-inducing) stuff that can happen in these rules.

The two major distinct versions of Blood Bowl - second edition (with the Star Players and Blood Bowl Companion supplements) and third and subsequent editions (with the Death Zone supplement, and on up to the present Living Rulebook) - have presented two distinct concepts for player and team development: one based upon potential, the other on experience.
    Considering these two in reverse chronological order, the current edition of Blood Bowl (at time of writing, LRB 2.0) presents a very balanced, fair system according to which (almost) all players start off with no special skills, and gain skills as they gain experience (by scoring touchdowns and inflicting casualties, etc). The only exceptions to this straightforward system are Star Players, whose skills are already highly-developed but fixed, but these (as acknowledged by Jervis Johnson himself) were originally a bit of a fudge to get in Secret Weapons and so on, and have mostly been phased out of subsequent developments of third edition Blood Bowl, and in the present edition are only available as Freebooters.
    The second edition league system (with which many Blood Bowl coaches may be unfamiliar) worked in a quite different way. Ordinary players, with no skills, were Experienced. With more experience, and training, a player could become a Veteran, which meant that he had a Player Re-roll (like a Team Re-roll, but only usable for rolls made by that player). This was as advanced as an ordinary player could become.
    But in this edition not all players were ordinary. When you signed a new player, this player was a Rookie, effectively just like an Experienced player except that he had Star Potential. When the Rookie had enough experience to improve, you made a roll against his Star Potential, and if you were lucky the Rookie transformed spontaneously into a Star Player, instantly gaining up to seven special skills. Most of the time though, he would just become Experienced.
    There are many other contrasts to be drawn between these two league systems: in second edition players had to be trained to use their experience; wages had to be paid, rather than just being abstracted out of the system; players could become disenchanted and leave the team; dirty tricks had to be paid for rather than just being controlled by cards. However, in my opinion the key difference between the two is that the second edition system focused upon player potential, and the current edition concentrates upon player experience.

Now let me explain where I am coming from in proposing the following alternate rules. They are not intended as a critique upon the league rules of the present edition: those rules have been proved over time to work very well, and do a good job of ensuring fair and balanced competition amongst coaches. Nor am I suggesting that the old second edition rules were superior: in fact I have never met anyone who ran a successful league under that system, and to do so would certainly have been demanding.
    These league rules are envisioned as alternate rules (for the jaded Blood Bowl coach) and have emerged out of two observations on my part. The first of these is that Blood Bowl leagues are always basically the same: you start off your team (with a predictable choice of line-up), as the players improve you know what skills you are going to give them, and eventually you get to a point at which there is nothing more to spend your money on. In time you start a new team, even a new league, or give up entirely for a while.
    Some recent changes have addressed this problem somewhat: the Ageing rules mean that it is possible for a player to become so decrepit that replacing him with new blood seems attractive; the inability to buy Star Players (or Team Wizards) permanently puts more demands on a team’s finances. But generally the same issues remain.
    Now there are some things you can do as an individual to relieve the monotony: you can try playing in a different style, requiring different skills; you can run a different team, even a silly team. There are other things you can do as a group in a league: you can set up a different kind of league (like an all-goblin league, a pub-team league, or some such); you can institute a few house rules; or whatever. Ultimately, with the same skeleton of league rules, the same problems will tend to re-surface.
    My other observation derives from being a fan of real-world sport. The system by which all players start with no skills or experience, and progress in a more or less predictable, linear fashion, is, as I have said, very fair and very well-balanced, but it isn’t very reflective of the nature of sport. If you will forgive me for making an analogy with football (soccer, to any American readers), great strikers do not become great because they score lots of goals (as they would by comparison with the Blood Bowl advancement system); they score lots of goals because they are great strikers!
    Other comparisons can be drawn: in football young, 'Rookie' players can make a fantastic impression in their first senior game; while veteran professionals may never rise above a certain level of the game because they simply don’t have the quality - both things that could not happen in Blood Bowl. I am sure that similar contrasts could be made by means of comparison with any other major team sport.
    Also, a lot of the fascination of real world sport lies in its unpredictability; not just in narrow terms of whether a pass will reach its target, or whether a shot will go in, but in broader terms of players having runs of form (good or otherwise), unexpected new signings being made, players demonstrating disenchantment or (more rarely) loyalty, young prospects fulfilling (or failing to fulfil) their potential. Almost all such aspects are missing from standard Blood Bowl leagues, in which the only unpredictable elements are sudden player deaths, the rolling of doubles on the skill table, Ageing, and some other minor aspects (none of which affect long-term team development).
    One final point of contrast between Blood Bowl and real world sport is that Blood Bowl teams invariably continually improve - at least until they reach a certain plateau. Occasionally a finesse team will fail to get off the ground - having too many players killed in its opening matches - and sometimes a team will suffer seriously in the short term when an important star player is killed, but generally - while teams may progress at different rates - they all steadily get better.
    As all sports fans know by bitter experience, the same is not true in the real world. Some teams can find themselves in a vicious circle, as failure unsettles their best players and straitens the finances, forcing the team to part with those players, leading to more defeats for the now weakened side. Conversely, some teams enjoy a virtuous cycle, in which success allows them to sign the most promising talents, some of whom turn into great players, leading to more victories.

As the above observations will suggest, the following alternate rules are intended to bring something of the flavour of real world sport to the world of Blood Bowl. The intention of this is not to supplant the existing Blood Bowl league system - which will continue to do a much better job of providing a fair and balanced game system - but to offer a more varied and unpredictable alternative for the jaded Blood Bowl coach. Centrally, this will involve a player advancement system which combines the principles of player experience and player potential.
    As an advance warning then, I should say that coaches should prepare themselves for the kind of ups-and-downs that misfortunate real world coaches have to deal with: promising talents will be stolen from under your nose; star players will make unreasonable wage demands and threaten to quit the team; and your rivals will go from victory to victory inspired by an array of glittering talents, while you find yourself paying through the nose for unreliable Freebooters in order to get even the slightest bit of quality into your ageing, lacklustre side.
    I did say that these rules were only aimed at those with jaded tastes!

Notes to version b2.0.0: Wow. It's been a while since I looked at these rules: quite a blast from the past. I would no longer consider myself a jaded coach, thanks to the wonders of fummbl.com. Quick matches, automated dice handling, no need to worry about figures before you start a new team: all these things transform BB. Even so, in time I suspect I will weary of the endless round of: start new team (all Linemen, FF9); get everyone Block; same old choices on doubles. It doesn't sound tiresome writing it now, but I know sooner or later it will become so. Therefore, the unpredictable alternative that these rules represent remains as important as ever!
    Even so, the Blood Bowl world has moved on, and these rules need updating. The LRB was at version 2.0 when these rules were written: it's now at version 4.0. I contemplated adapting these rules to match with that edition, but since the PBBL rules are coming along nicely, seem to be widely played in tabletop leagues, and are slated to become official in about 18 months, it makes more sense to dock with those instead. Helpfully, there are changes in the PBBL rules which solve problems which had previously existed with these jaded rules (eg the changes to Physical Attributes).
    PBBL looks very attractive to me, by the way. Previous changes to the official rules (ie the LRB) have been patches over the wounds that were inherent to the original third edition. Don't mistake me, third edition has always made for an excellent game and a vast improvement over its predecessor: no blame to the designers is intended for design compromises that were forced upon them by the pressure of deadlines. But the Star Player, Big Guy, Secret Weapon and experienced-team crippling (to use a catch-all term for Ageing, Appearance Fees, etc) rules which have come and gone have never been quite satisfactory, never seeming to tackle the problems as a whole, and sometimes losing sight of a few basic principles. PBBL appears to be another animal: yes, in some ways it is just attacking these problems again, in new ways, but it is also taking aim at problems the Blood Bowl community rarely even acknowledge exist, such as the elephant-in-the-room that is the tyranny of the Block skill. The new skills designed to counter or limit Block, Sidestep, Stand Firm, et al are ambitious, and ambition (carefully play-tested ambition at least) is to be applauded. Without ambition in changing the BB rules, the BB community today would be playing a version of second edition with a decade and a half of tweaks, fixes and re-writes behind it - and we would be few in number.
    Enough of the pleasantries though: for all that I admire it, PBBL doesn't tackle any of the issues I have with the present edition of Blood Bowl as discussed in the main introduction above. Reading them, I still have a hankering for more unpredictability, for more opportunities for Nuffle to be a bastard to coaches who deserve it, and more especially for those who don't - and I know there are a fair number of coaches out there who share my feelings. Thus, the jaded rules return! Marvel as glory is bestowed and snatched away in the blink of a coach's horrified eyes.
    Another thing I should add to the list of aims and objectives for the jaded rules: it has always seemed silly to me that a team can die out for lack of players. If 1,000,000 can be conjured from thin air to create any new team, why is no investment ever available for a well-known existing side which has fallen on hard times? The cheap availability of low Star Potential Rookie Linemen (Makeweights return!) under the auctioning part of this system should go some way towards rectifying this.
    Another note in passing on purpose: part of the goal of these rules is actually making things simpler for coaches in matches. Characteristic increases are big things for a player to have, and affect the game in any number of ways. This can be annoying in two ways: it irritates me aesthetically that some anonymous Lineman can just get an ST increase (and nothing else) - stat increases are big, special things, and only big, special players should have them; it is irritating in practical terms - there is never any obvious indicator that this is an ST 4 Lineman, and finding out (even if it just requires a quick mouse hover) is another thing that slows the game down. By these rules, it's only the Stars that have such dramatic abilities, and it's usually quite easy to keep track of those guys. Admittedly, Stars then have special rules of their own which make them even more complicated, but isn't contradiction at the heart of everything good in life?
 

Some Preliminary Notes

A reminder: These alternate rules are not intended in any way to be fair or balanced. You may well find yourself whining and complaining bitterly at the hand dealt you under this system. Conversely, everything may fall your way and you may find yourself effortlessly assembling the greatest Blood Bowl team you have ever had the fortune to coach. Whatever may happen, count your blessings and remember that this is what you signed on for.
    That said, there are three areas in which these rules do seek balance: no particular race or team should be at a significant advantage or disadvantage as a result of these rules (as opposed to those which have an advantage already under default rules); fringe teams - that is, teams of which there is only one in the league and have no competition for Rookies - should not find themselves with a clear advantage (or too severe a disadvantage); and finally Stars should not be such a burden that a team avoids having any of them, nor should they be so fabulous that teams can succeed consistently with more than about six on their roster (nor such a burden that no coach wants more than one). These are the main areas in which I seek to balance the rules, and I particularly welcome feedback on these topics.

These rules are designed to be used in conjunction with the Blood Bowl rules as given in the PBBL (aka Vault) rules version 1.10. If using these rules they replace the entire Blood Bowl Leagues and Playing League Matches sections of the PBBL, and supplement or alter a number of other sections. These rules do not alter any of the basic on-pitch rules of Blood Bowl PBBL 1.10. All references to page numbers in the PBBL are to the .pdf version.
    Accordingly, these rules assume a broad familiarity with the current rules, and it is not the purpose of these rules to explain the basics of Blood Bowl all over again. That the reader understands what skills are and what they do, what a D3 or a D66 indicates, and so forth, is assumed.
    If you find that any issue regarding league rules is not covered here, please inform me and in the meantime use the standard PBBL 1.10 method.
    I will do my best to update these rules to comply with future changes to the PBBL (or to the official rules once PBBL becomes official).
    These rules will probably not be compatible with any house rules or other experimental rules systems your league may be using, but you are welcome to try.

An important part of this league system is that teams sometimes compete for players: when a new prospect emerges; when a star player leaves a team, or becomes a Freebooter; etc. Obviously, if there is only one Dark Elf team in your league, there won’t be much competition for Rookie Witch Elves.
    There are two solutions: to loosen restrictions on which teams a player of a given race can play for; or to restrict coaches’ choice of teams. These possibilities, or some compromise between the two, will be discussed in more detail in the Tips on Founding an Alternate League section.

Throughout these rules the standard Blood Bowl convention of referring to real-life players (like you, the reader) as coaches is followed. Any reference to a player is to a miniature on the pitch or a name on the team roster - not to an actual person.

Note regarding fumbbl.com: These rules would be perfect for fumbbl: it is one of the few places which could supply the sheer mass of coaches needed to have a competitive number of teams drawn from every list. However: it's not going to happen. SkiJunkie and Christer have far more important things to do (like adapting the site and java app to the PBBL rules themselves for around the time they are to become official) than concern themselves with the interests of a minority of jaded coaches. In any case, at the time of writing, these rules are a long way from finding a constituency. (That I know of, perhaps three coaches on fumbbl - only two of them current regulars, including myself - have read them.) I encourage you to try them out on tabletop - for the rest, I will just quietly yearn. :)

Distribution

These rules are currently in a 'beta'-testing state - that is, external testing. Previously, these rules have only been used by a small group of coaches, and I, the designer, have almost always been on hand to clear up any confusion about how they work. Coaches who download and try to use these rules may run into lots of problems that I hadn't imagined, and will probably have to improvise to get things working. I will appreciate feedback, but I doubt it will be possible for me to walk coaches through, by e-mail, how things should work. (However, if you're on fummbl irc …)
    Similarly, while anyone and everyone is welcome to give these rules a try, this is a beta version and not a final version, and so I can make no guarantee that they will work for you the way I would like them to, much less in the way that you would like them to. Significantly, there are a few areas which our small group of coaches hasn't touched at all (eg there are some team lists we have not used at all under these rules). Use at your own risk!
    At some point in the future, a final version of these rules may emerge, if we reach a point where a large number of coaches in several different places have managed to run a successful league with a consistent set of these rules - but that is a very long way off yet.

Contacting the author

Please send all reports, questions, suggestions and criticism of these rules by e-mail to the following address: pacartwr@hotmail.com
    There is also a thread on them in the fumbbl.com forums somewhere (search for 'jaded').
    If you see me on fumbbl irc (I am 'pac' there), and I'm not looking for a game, then I will usually welcome a chat about these rules there too.

Redistribution

Feel free to redistribute this document: however, it must be redistributed 'as is' - even if you make changes to these alternate league rules for the purposes of your own house rules, you must not modify this document and then redistribute it. Please keep your own suggested changes in a separate document. Naturally, this document should only be redistributed free of charge.

Copyright & Disclaimer

Blood Bowl is a registered trademark of Games Workshop, as are a variety of Blood Bowl-related terms used in this document. No infringement of GW's copyright is intended. Also, a number of ideas used in these rules have been adapted from GW publications, and a small amount of material has been directly re-used. Again, no infringement of copyright is intended.

Apart from the above, all rights to this material are reserved to the author.

About the author

It occurs to me that I should note something here about my Blood Bowl-ing and gaming pedigree, if only to pre-empt those whose immediate reaction to these ideas will be: 'Who is this n00b and what makes him think anything he suggests could make this perfect game more fun!?'
    I have been playing Blood Bowl off-and-on for over 15 years, since around 1988-90 (I think '89, but it's hard to pin down). Second edition was current at the time, and I played many, many games in that edition, predominantly coaching Skaven (also Skaven and Goblin - the classic combination of deviousness and more deviousness) and Dwarves (bore your opponent to defeat in three easy steps!). I played Dungeonbowl (how I miss pushing players into Spiked Pits!), MegaBowl (was there another term for the four-team, two-pitch variant?), had Star Players and the BB Companion, and remember many games using all the optional rules and which lasted an exhausting four hours or so. I have an old Blood Bowl Treeman model (the one who wears a helmet, and is posed like a Zombie) which I have predictably never painted - the shame!
    At this point I had a Blood Bowl-ing lull for a while, before the much-heralded arrival of third edition. Despite reservations ('Longbeards? They're Dwarf Blockers!' 'What's with these silly High Elf names?'), the simplicity of the rules won the day: discovering that you could get through a game in an hour and a half against a quick player was a revelation! I abandoned Skaven - partly in disgust at their adoption of new, silly names - but stuck with Dwarves. Our most hated opponents in that first third edition league were an Orc team, and Orcs vs Dwarves remains the classic third ed match-up for me: the dwarves know the odds are stacked against them, but have to press on anyhow - get the Guards in the right place and keep going for those one dice blocks. Later on I adopted Wood Elves - the team at the other end of the MA spectrum - while nursing undefinable grudges against every other team list.
    More periods of BB lull follow, with occasional short-lived leagues popping up, until I fell in with a crowd of hardened, Machiavellian coaches raised in much more brutal Blood Bowl-ing academies than me, who introduced me to a more serious, no-holds-barred style than I had been accustomed to. I started running Humans - with no success at all - and Lizards - who are great fun, all the more so against a coach who doesn't know how to deal with them. More or less the same group of coaches later became the test group for the original version of these 'jaded' rules; I thank them for their patience, enthusiasm and suggestions (invariably ignored ;) ).
    These days I'm doing my best to rapidly shed newbie status on fumbbl; trying out new teams like they were hats (and constantly re-writing my 'I will never run that kind of team' list*); attempting to stay on the good side of fellow coaches whilst still indulging my ghoulish sense of humour; and fearfully anticipating the day when Nuffle turns on me and one of my beloved teams gets fed through the mincer (while my pride prevents me from conceding).
    In sum: I've never been a coach who goes to big tournaments or has been involved in the international Blood Bowl community, but I do have hundreds of games under my belt and I've been playing this game for a long time. There are still things I miss a lot from the old days, and you know what? Whether you know it or not, and whether or not you were even born when second edition was current, I think you miss them too.

As for my game design credentials, I have been the lead designer of a published computer game title (no advertising here: search hard enough and you'll find it), and have been an incorrigible board game, rpg, and house rule designer for as long as I can remember. People play games I design without me having to kick them too much! Sometimes they have even been known to enjoy them. :)

* Lists I will not run (serious) teams from atm: Amazon (Blodge too easily); Chaos Dwarf (prejudice); Pro Elf (no explanation); High Elf (the names are still lame); Khemri (do I have to spell it out?); Necros (Wolves are just not balanced, and now they're going to get Regenerate too! It was their only weak point!); Ogres (see Khemri); Orcs (overpowered: Linemen are meant to be your vanilla player, right? So what kind of team puts none of them on the pitch? Cut either Blitzers or BOBs to 0-2 - also prejudice (I do admire some Orc BB teams, and am an orcophile generally, but I scorn running them in BB)); and surprisingly that's about it. I have some misgivings about Dark Elves (4 Blitzers + 2 Blitzerettes (Witches) = 6, which is three times as many as any other elf side gets). They're also my strongest team at the moment. Soon, my resolution on not buying more than 2 Blitzers may be tested (if they don't all get killed).
    That's enough off-topic, I think.

Version History

Alpha Versions:

v0.1 (20/1/04):
            - first version: untested and incomplete

v0.2 (24/1/04):
            - first LRB 2.0 compliant version; first complete version; first version to be tested
v0.2.1 (29/1/04):
            - first html version
            - includes changes made after a handful of matches and after immediate input from other coaches
            - a team with no Stars on its roster adds +1 to all Star Potential checks
            - 1 EP is gained by a player who holds the ball at any stage during a match
            - at Rookie auctions, generate Rookies once per team per match played since the last auction (to a maximum of twice per team)
            - various minor corrections
v0.2.2 (1/3/04)
            - changes made after first tournament (approx. eight matches per team (with six teams in the league))
            - Quirks cannot be gained as advances; instead there is a chance of gaining a Quirk at each level of advancement
            - increased probability of Star gaining an Attribute increase (also, introduced chance of gaining two advances plus a Quirk)
            - changed odds for the number of advances a player gets on becoming a Star
            - Attribute increase tables implemented
            - six new Quirks added
            - Fair-weather Quirk name changed to Defeatist
            - Big Guys get Loner Quirk when they become Stars, lose Big Guy Racial Characteristic
            - Secret Weapon Star simplification: they can never 'Choose a skill' (always 'Random Skill' instead)
            - more Special Play cards added to list in Appendix V
            - various minor corrections

Beta Versions:

b1.0.0 (11/5/04):
            - first beta (external testing) version
            - document fully checked through again
            - clarified the order of the pre-match sequence
           - changed rules on Physical Traits for Pros
            - bonuses to Star Potential checks can carry over as bonuses on the initial advances table
            - team gets an extra roll at an auction if it has retired player(s)
            - extend handicap bands by 50%
            - added many more examples

b2.0.0 (21/10/05):
            - heh: been a while :)
            - first PBBL compliant version
            - even more editing corrections (cursed proofreading training ...)
            - added introductory notes to new edition
            - added About the author sub-section
            - Loner Quirk is changed and now has more levels (PBBL stole my Quirk name! ;) )
            - got rid of the Pro restricted skill list (cheers from all quarters! - only possible thanks to PBBL's trashing of traits - more cheers!)
            - again thanks to the PBBL changes, was able to trash the horrible Secret Weapon sub-section (another monkey I'm glad to be rid of)
            - many changes made to comply with PBBL (especially Inducements, team value, and c)
            - added two new Quirks: Personal Apothecary (to make all coaches drool), and No Doctors! (to make grown men weep)
            - replaced the 'floating pips' system (I never really liked it), with a Star Bonuses/Penalties system … it may be too elaborate, time will tell
            - attribute increase tables (Appendix III) removed: not an argument I need to have, and in no way essential to this rules set
            - Appendix V removed: just too outdated to bother to keep
            - unending minor changes and corrections

b2.0.1 (27/10/05):
            - minor update: changed two Quirks relating to fouls to comply with PBBL

b2.0.2 (7/11/05):
            - modifications to racial position tables - fewer of the most expensive players on each list
            - more minor updates

Starting a New Team

Ideally under this system teams should already start off with some character. That is, they should not all start off equal and balanced. At some point I intend to come up with a semi-random generation system for new teams, such that they will already have a mixture of Stars, Rookies and players of various levels of experience.
    For the moment, however, I can only offer a variation on the standard generation system as explained below. This system has worked well for us in our small league, although it may take a little while to begin to generate the Stars who are the heart of this system.
 

Basic Generation System

As per the standard rules, each coach gets 1,000,000 with which to purchase a new team. Three Rookies from the selected team list should be generated for the team (as explained in the Hiring and Firingsection). These Rookies are not entered into any bidding process: any, none or all of them can simply be bought for the team at the normal price for a player of that position (ignoring Star Potential modifiers) if the player wants them. (Start at Step 2 when generating these Rookies - they will always be from your team list, and cannot be Big Guys or Secret Weapons.) These three players begin with 0 EPs.
    The rest of the money is then spent more or less according to the usual rules. Once a team has been founded, under these rules it is not possible to purchase players straight off the team list (see the Hiring and Firing section). Starting a new team is the exception to this. All the starting players bought at this stage are considered to be Journeyman Pros with no Star Potential modifier and 6 EPs (see the Player Advancement section). Fan Factor, Re-rolls and so forth can be purchased as per the standard rules.
    Coaches should save some of their money, however, and would be well advised not to fill up all their positional slots, as a first Rookie auction (see the Hiring and Firing section) should be held before the first game of the league takes place.
    (Any Rookies generated when creating a team which are not signed up for the newly created team are carried over to the next Rookie auction. At that auction, the coach who generated these players may not make any bids for them with any of the coach's own teams.)

A coach starts a new Orc team. He generates three Orc Rookies, who turn out to be a Blitzer with +2 SPP, a Lineman with -1, and a 'Choose' player with +1. The coach buys the Blitzer for 80,000, decides to make the 'Choose' player a Thrower and buys him for 70,000, and decides not to purchase the Lineman (who offers only an arguable advantage over a Journeyman Pro Lineman). This leaves the coach with 850,000 to purchase the rest of the team as normal (all of the remaining players will be Journeyman Pros).
    The rejected Rookie Lineman's details are retained for the next Rookie auction. However, at that auction the coach who generated him will not be able to make bids for him with any of his teams (especially his more experienced, short-of-manpower, existing Orc team!).

Playing Alternate League Matches

This section gives a quick run-down of the sequence of play of an alternate league match, flagging up the key differences between this system and the standard rules, and directing coaches towards other sections of these rules.
    Follow the sequence below for any match played under these rules:

1. Pre-Match Sequence
    1. Roll on Weather table
    2. Work out the Handicap
    3. Random Events
    4. Take Inducements

2. The Match
    - follow the standard (PBBL 1.10) rules

3. Post-Match Sequence
    1. Allocate MVPs and calculate new EPs totals
    2. Improvement rolls
    3. Calculate team winnings
    4. Make Settling down checks for Freebooters
    5. Update Team Roster
 

Pre-Match Sequence

Follow these steps before each league match:

1. Roll on the Weather table
One coach rolls on the Weather table as normal.

2. Random Events
These Random Events should not be confused with the Random Event Special Play cards. They are unique to this rules system, and distinct from any other method of handicapping.
    Refer to the Random Events section and generate a Random Event on the table there for every Star Player on the team’s roster. If you have no Star Players, then you should still roll once on the table - but many of the events will not affect you because those events only affect Stars. Note that unlike many events systems, most of these events will be negative for your team, so it is important that all rolls are witnessed by the opposing coach.

3. Take Inducements
This works much as the standard PBBL rules do - each coach may buy inducements; the coach with the lower team value gets bonus money to buy inducements equal to the difference in team value - with one addition: the entry below should be considered to replace the 0-2 Star Players entry on page 35 of the PBBL rules.

0-2 Freebooters: Freebooters are skilled, experienced Star Blood Bowl players who offer their services to the highest bidder. You may hire up to two Freebooters that are eligible to play for your team. Freebooters may not take the number of players in the team to more than 16. However, players that are missing the game due to injury do not count towards the number of players on the team, so you can use Star Players to replace players that are missing a game if you wish. It is possible for both teams to attempt to induce the same Freebooter. If this happens then the two coaches should continue to increase their respective bids until one drops out and the Freebooter joins the highest bidder.
    In time, the alternate league rules system will begin to generate its own native Star Freebooters who have quit league teams for one reason or another. It is the League Commissioner’s job to keep track of these players, to make sure that each one is only playing for one team at any one time, to update their profile to account for new skills or injuries, and so forth. Such Freebooters are described in the Hiring and Firing section.
    Until your league starts to generate its own Freebooting Stars (and perhaps even after that), you may wish to use the Star Players from the usual list (pages 59-60 of the PBBL rules) as Freebooters. These Star Players do not gain EPs (any MVP that goes to one is wasted), do not improve, and never settle down to join a team.

The Dwarf Anvils are preparing for a match with opponents the Orcland Raiders. The Anvils Team Value (from step 1) is 310,000 higher than that of the Raiders. However, in step 2 a Random Event is rolled which causes the Anvils' Star Blitzer to walk out on the team! The loss of the player will reduce the dwarves' value by more than 200,000, but not until after the coming match. The Anvils' coach notes the treacherous Blitzer in his own personal Book of Grudges and steels himself for a difficult fixture, as Inducements are calculated as if the wayward Star were still present.

Post-Match Sequence

Follow these steps after each league match:

1. Allocate MVPs and calculate new EPs totals
Allocate MVPs according to the usual rules (MVPs can go to Freebooters, Mercenaries, and Star Players, and can be awarded posthumously). In the case of Freebooters (only; and ones generated by these rules not published Star Players), an MVP award is not lost, it adds to that player's EPs total as he continues to advance.
    Check that all EP awards for this match have been made correctly (see the Player Advancement section).

2. Improvement rolls
Players develop in a quite different, and more complex, manner under these alternate rules. Refer to the Player Advancement section for a full explanation.

3. Calculate team winnings
Generate winnings for the match. Each coach rolls a D6 and adds their FAME. Your team receives this amount x 10,000 gold pieces as winnings for the match. If you won the match you receive an additional 10,000 gold pieces and may choose to re-roll your D6 if you wish, but you must accept the second result even if it is worse than the first.
       There are no Spiralling Expenses under this alternate league rules system: the effects of the Star Player Random Event system should instead serve to somewhat rein in the most highly-developed teams.

[Designer's note: Will this produce enough money? Will teams require more income than this just to keep up with the demands of their Stars?]

4. Make Settling down checks for Freebooters
Sometimes a Star Freebooter (not a published Star Player, but only a player who has been generated using this system) will decide to end his wandering ways and will offer to sign permanently for a team who have just hired him for a match. See under Freebooters in the Hiring and Firing section for more information.
    Stalled Contract Disputes are also resolved at this time.

5. Update Team Roster
There are no Spiralling Expenses under this alternate league rules system: the effects of the Star Player Random Event system should instead serve to somewhat rein in the most highly-developed teams.

a. Fan Factor. Skip this step if the match was drawn. Each coach should roll 2D6, subtracting 1 from the total if the coach's team has no Stars on the roster, adding 1 if it has three or four Stars, and adding 2 if it has five or more Stars on the roster.
    If the winning coach's total is greater than the team's current Fan Factor, then it is increased by one point.
    If the losing coach's total is less than the team's current Fan Factor, then it is decreased by one point.

b. Bank. Each coach may now transfer gold from his treasury to his bank or to his treasury from the bank (remember that the bank cannot hold more than 100,000 gold pieces).

c. Hire new players and coaching staff. New players and coaching staff can be hired, and other purchases made, at any time between matches according to the rules given in the Hiring and Firing section. Most importantly, for coaches not yet fully familiar with this system, positional players (i.e. other than Linemen or equivalent) cannot simply be bought from the team list under this system. Consult the Hiring and Firing section for more details.

d. Team Value. Team Value is calculated according to the standard PBBL rules.
    It should be noted that the amount you may have had to bid to sign a player (eg a Rookie) has nothing to do with that player’s value as far as calculating Team Value is concerned. Nor does Star Potential have any influence. A player’s value is simply equal to the normal cost of a player under the default rules, as shown on the team list, modified by any additional skills or characteristic increases. A Star's Quirks (good or bad) do not affect the player's value.

Conceding

A coach that concedes before setting up for a kick-off where he could only field 2 or fewer players suffers no additional penalties. If a coach concedes for any other reason then the following rules apply:
    The winning coach gains all of what would have been the conceding coach's ‘winnings’. The team that concedes a match must give its  MVP to the opposing team (ie, the winning coach gets two MVPs and the losing coach gets none).
    The team of the conceding coach automatically loses a point of Fan Factor (no roll is made), and one dice must be rolled for each Star Player in his team, adding the Star’s Level: on a total of 5 or more that Star gains the Disillusioned Quirk. (This last rule applies in place of the default rule of rolls being made to see if players with 51+ SPPs leave the team.)

Player Advancement

There are three distinct types of player in this league system: Star Players (or just Stars), non-Star Players (or Pros), and new, young signings (or Rookies). Rookies (and to a lesser extent Pros) can become Stars, and Stars can do lots of things that mere mortals can’t, such as breaking their contract and becoming free agents or Freebooters. There are lots of events which can only affect Stars (and not Pros or Rookies), and a few that specifically affect Pros or Rookies (and not Stars).
 

Pros & Rookies

As in the default rules, players earn points for certain actions during matches, and these points allow them to improve as players. However, these points are called EPs (Experience Points) and not Star Player Points, as not all players are, or can hope to become, Stars. EPs are gained as follows:
 

* Any player who appears on the pitch at any time during a match (for one turn or the whole game) earns 1 EP.
** Any player who holds the ball at any point during the match gains 1 EP. If a player holds the ball several times, or alternatively for a very long time, he still only gets 1 EP.

* See Stars below for the function of the Star check no.

Leader: Leader can only be chosen by a Senior or Veteran Pro if, and only if, no other player in the team (Pro or Star) already possesses it. (The player must also have access to Passing skills, naturally.)

Pro: Note that the skill Pro (freely available to Pros) is not available to Stars (although a former Pro with that skill who becomes a Star may keep it).

Frenzy: A Pro may never take Frenzy as a skill in this system. (Frenzy can only be acquired by Stars as a Star Quirk.)

Mutations: An important note: No two Pros on the same team may ever have the same combination of Mutations. (Eg You have a Chaos team with three Pros who have Mutations: one has Very Long Legs, one has a Big Hand, and the third has Claws and Foul Appearance. Another Pro advances to Experienced Pro status and gains the option of taking a Mutation. This Pro may not choose Very Long Legs or Big Hand (this would be the same combination - of one - as one of the first two Pros), but could choose Claws or Foul Appearance (he would not have the same combination as the third Pro) or any other Mutation not possessed by any Pro on the team (or indeed a skill from the normal categories instead).)
    (Note that Stars may have any combination of Mutations, and any clash with a combination possessed by a Pro does not matter.)
 

Stars

Stars work somewhat differently both from Pros and from the standard player advancement rules: this system is something of a throw-back to the old second edition system mentioned in the introduction. When a new player is hired for a team (after initial team creation) he is always a Rookie with 0 EPs (see the Hiring and Firing section). Each time a player advances on the Pro advancement chart (ie from Rookie to Journeyman Pro, Journeyman to Experienced Pro, etc.) there is a chance that he may become a Star, shunting him off the Pro development track and into the exciting world of Stardom!
    After a match, whenever a Rookie or Pro has enough EPs to advance, roll 2D6 for the player and add his Star Potential modifier (see the Hiring and Firing section). Add a further +1 if the team the player is in currently includes no Stars. Do this before selecting a new skill for the player (if the player becomes a Star he will advance differently and not gain that improvement as a Pro).
    If the total is less than the number required, then the player continues on the Pro advancement track as normal.
    If the total equals or beats the Star check number listed on the Pro advancement table above, then the player becomes a Star, and leaves the Pro advancement track behind forever. If the roll is passed, note the amount by which the die roll exceeded the number required (eg a Rookie with +3 Star Potential in a team with no Stars rolls two dice and adds four, needing a total of 11 or more. His coach rolls a double 6, for a total of 16, and so he notes down that the player has become a Star, exceeding the roll needed by five). (Note: a double 6 is not an automatic success on these rolls. On rolls in the latter part of a Pro's career, it is quite possible for a player to be unable to succeed in becoming a Star.)
    Important Note! These Star Potential checks are by far the most important dice rolls in this league system. It is absolutely essential that they be witnessed: even the most honest of Blood Bowl-playing gentlemen may be hard pressed to resist the temptation of just nudging the figures a little on such a vital dice roll.

To achieve the exalted status of Stardom is to realise one’s potential: when a player becomes a Star he will instantly gain a number of advances, such that his abilities may immediately exceed those of your most reliable Veteran Pros. Roll two dice on the following table, and add the number by which the player beat the Star Potential number required, to determine how many new advances your new Star gains (eg the Rookie from the previous example rolls two dice and adds five, rolling a double 6 again, for the maximum possible (barring special Random Event modifiers) of 17, and instantly gains the maximum seven advances!):

In addition to these advances, the new Star immediately gains his first Star Player Quirk (see below).
    When a player becomes a Star, put an asterisk (*) on the roster by their position to indicate this. The player’s actual position remains unchanged (ie it does not become ‘Star Player’), this is simply an indication of the player's newfound special status.
    The player keeps his present number of EPs, but now advances on the following table:

With each subsequent level of advancement the Star Player gains a new skill (or other advance), and also has a chance of gaining a Quirk. When the Star gains a level, roll one dice and compare it against the number given in the Quirk column above. If the result is equal to or greater than the number on the table, then the Star gains a new Star Player Quirk (see below) in addition to his advance.
    For all advances gained as a Star (ie the initial ones when the Star is 'born', and all subsequent ones), roll on the following table:

Random Skill: Pros gain their skills through experience and training, and can be directed to improve themselves along certain lines. Stars, however, are not subject to the normal laws of coaching and their abilities often develop unpredictably.
    If you get a Random Skill result for a Star’s advance, then you may still choose a skill category (according to the normal restrictions) but you must select a skill by any agreed random method from within that category.
    If you generate a skill or trait the Star already possesses, or Pro (a Star may never gain Pro), or another skill or trait which he may not take for some reason, then pick at random again.
    This result may not be refused in favour of a 'Choose a skill' result.

Choose a skill: As per the standard rules, you must select a skill from a category the player has access to.

Characteristic increase: Roll one dice and the following corresponds to the standard distribution of characteristic increases: 1-3 = +1 MA or AV; 4-5 = +1 AG; 6 = +1 ST.
    As usual, you cannot have more than two advances to any one attribute. A further advance rolled for that attribute should be considered a ‘Choose a skill’ result.
    As in the standard rules, a coach may choose to give his player a new skill instead of a characteristic increase. This is then considered to be a ‘Choose a skill’ result. This decision may be made after the specific increase available is known.

Two advances and an extra Quirk: Immediately roll again on the advance table twice, and then generate a new Quirk for the Star. Further rolls of 12 will result in even more advances being generated. Note that these extra advances are not bonus, free advances - they count towards the usual maximum of seven (see below).
    This result may not be refused in favour of a 'Choose a skill' result.

Doubles: Doubles on the 2D6 roll do not allow you to choose a skill from a category the player does not usually have access to - this is because Stars actually have an increasedchance of getting to choose skills which are out of the ordinary! Roll an additional dice whenever you get a ‘Random Skill’ or ‘Choose a skill’ result. On a 5 or 6 you may choose a skill from any skill category marked in the 'Doubles' column for a player of that position (these are much better odds than those of rolling a double on two dice normally).
    In the case of ‘Random Skill’ result, a 5 or 6 allows you to select a skill at random from any category of your choice (one in the 'Normal' or 'Doubles' column on the team list). The specific skill acquired remains random.
    In the case of a 'Characteristic Increase' result, you may roll to see if you get a 5 or 6 before deciding whether to take the increase or a skill.

Frenzy: Under this system Frenzy is not considered to be a General skill (regrets, but the author simply does not believe in the idea of training a player to make him or her more angry), but rather an Extraordinary Ability, and as such it cannot be gained either as a random skill or a chosen skill. Frenzy is also a Star Player Quirk (see below) and can be gained (or even potentially lost) as such.

Pro: As noted above, the Pro skill is reserved for Pros themselves under this system: it represents a degree of professionalism and quiet competence which Stars virtually never display. A Star may not gain Pro either as a random skill or a chosen skill (even on the additional roll of a 5 or 6). However, a Star who gained Pro during his earlier career as a Pro may keep the skill.

Important Note: No Star may ever have more than seven advances (ie skills and characteristic increases) in total (this total includes advances the player may have acquired during his career as a Pro). If a Star already has seven advances, and would gain another one (either because he has gained enough EPs to go up yet another level or rolls a 'Two advances and a Quirk' result), he automatically gets another Star Quirk instead of an advance (see below).

Example of Star Player generation:

After a match, the coach of the Middenheim Marauders notes that one of his promising Rookies (a Catcher with +2 Star Potential) now has a total of 7 EPs, having scored a touchdown (and thus also held the ball) during a match. The Marauders already have a couple of Stars, so including the Rookie's SP bonus the coach needs to roll 9 or more on two dice for the player to become a Star. The coach crosses his fingers, and throws the dice, which come up with a total of 10!
    The coach now ignores the rest of the details on the Pro advancement table, and consults the section on Stars. First he must roll to see how many advances the Catcher immediately gets. He rolls two dice and adds one (the amount by which the player exceeded the necessary total to become a Star). He gets an average total of 8, meaning an immediate three advances.
    Rolling for these advances immediately, the coach gets rolls of 5, 8, and 10. These correspond to one result of Random Skill, one of Choose a skill, and one Attribute Increase. The coach must determine these in the order they were rolled up.
    First, for the Random Skill, the coach rolls to see whether it may be taken from a category to which the player does not usually have access (Strength or Passing). He rolls a 5, which means it can. The coach may pick the category, and once he has decided the skill will be determined at random within those parameters.
    The coach now considers his options. General offers useful skills for a Catcher like Block, Fend, and Kick-off Return, but also less obviously suitable skills like Kick, Tackle and Wrestle (Pro or Frenzy could not be gained even at random). Agility seems a less risky choice: only Diving Tackle is not a natural skill for a Catcher, and even that could be useful if he was employed as a safety. Passing and Strength also offer possibilities, but the prospect of ending up with a Catcher with Safe Throw or Multiple Block does not fill the coach with enthusiasm (and he'd feel particularly silly if he ended up with Break Tackle).
    After some consideration, the Marauders coach takes the relatively safe option of a random Agility skill. He rolls a D10 to get a random skill from that category, re-rolling 1 (a Human Catcher already has Catch), 4 (already has Dodge), and 10 (there are only 9 Agility skills). Finally this generates a roll of 5: the Catcher gains the Jump Up skill.
    The Choose a skill result came next. Again the coach rolls to see whether he can choose from outside normal skill categories, rolling a 3. This limits him to General and Agility skills only (again, not Pro or Frenzy). The coach, from an old-fashioned, conservative mould, plumps for Block.
    Finally comes the Attribute Increase. The coach rolls one dice, getting a 4, and happily gives his Catcher +1 AG. (In theory, the coach could have chosen a skill instead, in which case he would have rolled as usual to see if it could have been taken from double skill categories. In practice, he did not contemplate that option.)

At a stroke the Marauders have gained an exceptional player: an AG 4 Catcher with two solid skills in Block and Jump Up, not to mention the prospect that he may improve further if he can pick up another 9 EPs (which should not be difficult for a Star such as this. The only question that remains is whether the new Star will roll up a Quirk which will spoil all his talents …

Star Player Quirks

Stars are often Blood Bowl-ing geniuses, but they are usually flawed geniuses - which should be no surprise given the extreme combination of risks and rewards which a Star encounters in the course of his career. To represent these flaws, Star Players possess Star Quirks.
    Star Quirks are sometimes negative, occasionally positive, and often a mixed blessing (typically one of the 'Why does Nuffle hate me?' variety). The key difference between a Quirk and a skill is that the effects of a Quirk must always be applied: during a game, if an opponent notices that a coach has failed to apply the effects of a Quirk, then he may call an Illegal Procedure. Note that this does not apply to any Quirk whose effects are wholly positive.
    Star Quirks resemble some of the Extraordinary Abilities possessed by Big Guys (and some others) in that their effects are often bad, and that their effects must always be applied. In fact, if a Big Guy (or any other player who possesses one or more of these abilities) becomes a Star, he retains all his Extraordinary Abilities, but those on the following list are now also considered to be Quirks: Always Hungry, Blood Lust, Bone-Head, Frenzy (now considered an Extraordinary Ability, see above), Loner, Take Root, Really Stupid(also known as Bone-Head level 2), Wild Animal(also known as Frenzy level 2).

(Note: Quirks can be both gained and, sometimes, lost. Yes, this does mean what you think it does: your Ogre might be able to lose Bone-head; your Troll might stop eating Goblins (what else will he eat?); your Vampire might learn to keep his appetites under control while the game is being played. On the other hand your Troll Slayer might lose Frenzy (this actually happened to the author's dwarf team). Whatever your hopes, don't worry: it's far more likely that your prized Star will just become even more of a liability!)

Gaining Quirks: There are several ways in which a Star can gain Quirks:
    - When a new Star is born he gains one Star Player Quirk in addition to his advance rolls
    - When a Star is born, some of his Extraordinary Abilities may become Quirks
    - Whenever a Star advances a level he has a chance of gaining a new Quirk
    - If a Star rolls a double 6 for an advance, he rolls up two advances, but also gains a Quirk
    - If a Star already has seven advances, and would gain another one, he automatically gains another Quirk instead of rolling on the advance table
    - At the end of any match in which the Star suffered at least one Casualty result (even if it was Regenerated or cured by an Apothecary or Healer), the Star gains one random Quirk
    - Various random events can cause a Star to gain a Star Quirk (a few can even cause a Star to lose a Quirk)
    - if a Star ever has no Quirks (some random events can result in the loss of Quirks) immediately generate a new random Quirk for him

Note that Star Quirks (even good ones) never count as advances for the purposes of a player’s total number of advances.

Generating Quirks: The Star Quirk generation table is found, along with the descriptions of the Quirks’ effects, in Appendix I. Note that in addition to a Quirk’s described effects, many Quirks will change the result or severity of some random events: for example, many events cannot affect a Loyal player at all; while many other events will be much more expensive for you if they affect a Mercenary Star.

Opposites: Some Star Quirks have opposites. One example of opposites is the pair Flair and Consistent. Opposite Quirks cannot co-exist. If you generate a Star Quirk for a player which is an opposite of a Quirk he already has, then roll one dice: on an odd number, the old Quirk stays and the newly-rolled one is ignored (do not roll again); on an even number, the new Quirk has displaced the old one - delete it and write in its replacement (unless the old Quirk was Level 2 or higher - see Appendix I).
    You may get a more complicated combination of Quirks on a player which you think is contradictory, or you may just get a Quirk which seems out of character for that player (e.g. Frenzy for an Elf Catcher). In this case consult your League Commissioner, who may allow you to delete or re-roll one or more of the Quirks, but is advised to tell you that the weirdest combinations are usually the most entertaining.

We now return to the coach of the Middenheim Marauders, who is nervously preparing to throw D666 to find out what his new Star's initial Quirk will be. He rolls 533 - Vindictive. This is bad news. It means that whenever, at the start of a team turn, there is a prone opposing player in an adjacent square to the Catcher, on a roll of a 1 he will be distracted from more important tasks (ie scoring touchdowns) and is only permitted to take a Foul action that turn. Cursing his luck, his mind filling with visions of opponents deliberately getting their players to fall over next to his Star, the coach makes a note that the next skill he will give the Star should be Dirty Player - if he's going to be forced to foul, he may as well be good at it.

Star Linemen

The phrase Star Lineman is almost a contradiction in terms: Stars are players who hog the limelight and are always at the heart of the action; whereas Linemen exist to make up the numbers and remain unnoticed in the background. While Star Linemen do exist, it must be said that the ranks of Stars are made up disproportionately of positional players. If a coach realises that a Lineman has the makings of a Star, he will usually try and re-train him to play in a more important position.
    If a Rookie Lineman (or equivalent: eg Dwarf Blocker - the 0-16 position for that team list) becomes a Star then roll again on the appropriate racial player position table (see Appendix II). The player’s position may immediately be changed to the one rolled, and skills and characteristics adjusted accordingly. If the coach does not like the position rolled, the player may remain a Lineman (or equivalent). This change in position occurs before the Star's new advances are generated.
    If Lineman (or equivalent) is rolled again on the table, then the coach realises that becoming a Star hasn’t made this Blood Bowl player any brighter, and he is too stupid to re-train, remaining a Lineman.
    If ‘Choose’ is rolled on the position table, then the player can be given any new position, but cannot become a Secret Weapon, nor can he change species.
    Note that with mixed race team lists (like Chaos, Chaos Dwarf and Undead) a Beastman, for example, does not count as being a Lineman in this respect, and cannot transform into a Chaos Warrior if he becomes a Star Player. Nor can an Orc Lineman turn into a Black Orc (only a Blitzer or Thrower); nor can Skeletons or Zombies become Ghouls, Wights or Mummies (and so forth: try to apply some common sense here - this is re-training, not genetic manipulation).
    If a Pro Lineman at a later stage in his career somehow becomes a Star, then he is too set in his ways to be re-trained, and always remains a Lineman.

Hiring and Firing

Under this system a team may not simply sign new players by paying the cost on the team list. Instead Rookie players only become available intermittently, and all teams can bid for them as explained below. If a team is in desperate need of a specialist player, the coach will have to depend on Induced Mercenaries or Freebooters.
    The rules below explain how players are acquired (and lost) under this system. Use the standard rules for buying Team Re-rolls (ie double price), Apothecaries, assorted coaching staff and making all other purchases.
 

Rookie Auctions

The main way of acquiring new players under this league rules system is through the auctioning of Rookies. Once every agreed time period (perhaps once per week or per fortnight - ideally, this should be the average length of time it takes for the average player in the league to play two matches) the League Commissioner, in the company of at least two other league members, generates a new influx of Rookie players, for whose contracts the coaches must then bid.
    All Rookies are not created equal. Under this system, bidding for Rookies is the main way of acquiring new specialist positional players, and some Rookies have a better chance than others of going on to become Star Players.

The League Commissioner should follow the steps set out below once per team per match played by that team since the last auction, to a maximum of twice per team (if a team has played no matches since the last auction, generate no Rookies for the team, but they may still make bids normally). (See the example below.) If a team has voluntarily retired one or more players since the last auction, that team gets one extra roll - this represents Rookies realising that they have a chance of breaking into that team in the wake of this retirement (not to mention reminding them that it is possible to escape this career alive) - for an absolute maximum of three rolls per team.

Step 1: Determine Number and Type of Rookies
First this table is used to determine number of Rookies:

If a result of 2-3 or 4 is rolled, the Rookies are drawn from the team list of the team the Rookie(s) are being generated for.
    If a random team list must be selected, choose only from those lists which are represented in the league.

Step 2: Determine Player Position
Now each Rookie's position must be determined using the Racial Player Position tables included in Appendix II. If a result of ‘Choose’ is obtained on the table, then the coach who ultimately signs the player gets to decide what that position is. (Note: Not all positions on a team's list are included in that team's Player Position table. Those positions not listed can only be selected for a Rookie in the case of a 'Choose' result.)

Step 3: Determine Star Potential
Now each Rookie's Star Potential is determined. This is the modifier that is applied to any and every Star Potential roll made when a player gains experience.

All Linemen (or equivalent - see Appendix II), Big Guys (ie players with the Loner Extraordinary Ability, and also Ogres on an Ogre team) and Secret Weapons (ie players with the Secret Weapon Extraordinary Ability) suffer an additional -1 penalty to this modifier. Snotlings suffer a -2 penalty instead. In the case of a ‘Choose’ position, this penalty is applied, if appropriate, after the position is ultimately selected.

Step 4: Repeat
As explained above, this process is now repeated for each team (up to two (or three) times in total) for which Rookies are being generated.

Example:

Rookies are being generated for a small league of two Orc teams, a Chaos team and a Skaven team. However, the Skaven have not played this week, so no Rookies will be generated for them. The other teams each played one match (the Orcs played each other; the Chaos team played a team which has since disbanded), so one set of Rookies is generated for each of them.
    For the first Orc team a 6 is rolled - one Rookie from a random team list. There are three different types of team in the league, so it is decided that on 1-2 the player will be an Orc; 3-4 Chaos; 5-6 Skaven. (Note that Skaven can be chosen at random even though the Skaven team has not played; also note that the odds are not affected by the number of teams of a certain race in a league). A 5 is rolled, so the player will be Skaven.
    For the second Orc team a 5 is rolled, so two Orc Rookies will be generated.
    For the Chaos team a 3 is rolled: one Chaos Rookie.
    Now the players themselves are rolled up. A 4 is rolled for the Skaven’s position - a Thrower - and a 3 for his Star Potential - +1.
    The Orcs are a Lineman and a ‘Choose’ result. The Lineman’s Star Potential is -1 (a 2 was rolled on the table which would be no modifier, but there is an extra penalty for being a Lineman). The ‘Choose’ player has +2 Star Potential: this combination makes this Rookie an extremely valuable commodity. When the player’s position is finally chosen by the coach who gets his contract, if Lineman (for some reason) or Goblin (for some even more bizarre reason) or Troll is chosen, then his actual Star Potential will be just +1.
    A 4 is rolled for the Chaos player: a Beastman. A 4 is then rolled for his Star Potential, which would be +1 except that Beastmen count as Chaos Linemen, and so suffer the -1 Star Potential penalty, so there is actually no modifier.
    The Rookie pool for this week is thus as follows:

Skaven Thrower: +1 SP
Orc Lineman: -1 SP
Orc ‘Choose’: +2 SP
Chaos Beastman: +0 SP

Minimum bids: Even if there is no competition for a Rookie’s contract, a certain minimum bid must be made. This is because young promising Blood Bowl players quickly attract agents who ensure that ‘their’ player is paid what he deserves as a signing-on fee. The minimum bid is equal to half the normal cost for a player in that position, plus 10,000 per point of Star Potential. The ‘normal cost’ for a ‘Choose’ player is considered to be that of the most expensive player from that team list (e.g. 120,000 for Wood Elves, being the price of a Wardancer: this would then be halved to 60,000, and so a Wardancer with +1 Star Potential would have a minimum bid price of 70,000).

If all the coaches in the league are present for the generation of these Rookies, then the bidding process can take place immediately. If they are not then a certain period must be allowed for bids to come in, during which time it is the Commissioner’s responsibility to inform all coaches of the Rookies available and alert them to the latest bids. During such a period, it is permissible for coaches to play matches in an effort to raise enough funds to make a bid.

At the end of the process, each Rookie will join whichever team finally bidded the most for him. If two or more teams are locked in the bidding, and none can or will bid higher, then the Rookie will choose to accept the offer of the team with the highest Team Rating of those tied. If this is also equal, he will pick at random, by a method decided by the League Commissioner. Only the team which makes the winning bid pays out the necessary cash.
    Now the coaches who made the winning bids must delete the appropriate amount of cash from their roster. If a coach is unable to pay up (perhaps because he made several high bids on different players, and didn’t expect to win all of them), he must decide which Rookie(s) to sign, and the others will each go to the next highest bidder. In such a situation the Commissioner may also wish to consider fining the coach concerned for misconduct, or banning him from the next Rookie auction.
    Any Rookie player who is not signed up will not carry over to the next bidding session: instead he either thinks better of his intention to become a Blood Bowl player (sensible fellow), or else is snapped up by a team from another league. Whatever the case, he is lost to the current league.

Continuing our earlier example:

The required minimum bids for our Rookies are as follows:

  Skaven Thrower (+1 SP): 45,000
    (Cost of a Skaven Thrower (70,000) divided by 2 = 35,000; 35,000 +10,000 (for +1 SP) = 45,000)
  Orc Lineman (-1 SP):  15,000
   (50,000/2 = 25,000; 25,000- 10,000 (-1 SP) = 15,000)
  Orc ‘Choose’ (+2 SP):  75,000
   (110,000 (cost of a Troll)/2= 55,000; 55,000 + 20,000 (+2 SP)= 75,000)
  Beastman: (+0 SP):   30,000
   (60,000/2 = 30,000)

    All the coaches are present for the bidding, which takes place straight away.
    The Skaven Thrower can only join the sole Skaven side (note that the Skaven coach can still bid for Rookies even though he has not played recently). The Skaven purchase the player for the minimum: 45,000.
    Similarly, the Beastman can only join the Chaos team, but unfortunately the Chaos coach is broke and cannot afford to sign him. Since the bidding must be completed now, he will not have the chance to play some matches to raise funds: as he knew he had no cash it would have been better strategy not to have turned up.
    The two Orc coaches now get into a bidding war over the fantastic prospect of the Orc ‘Choose’ (+2 SP) player. This is finally won with a bid of 100,000, but only because the other coach was unable to bid any higher. The victorious bidder now decides that this player will be a Blitzer (his team already has a moderately reliable Troll, and the coach wants to maximise the chance of getting a Star Player - choosing Troll as a position would reduce the player's Star Potential).
    The losing Orc coach does get the consolation prize of the Orc Lineman for a mere 15,000, since his rival does not deign to bid.

Rookie Linemen

It is always possible for a team to sign Rookie Linemen (or Linemen-equivalents: eg Dwarf Blockers, Zombies/Skeletons, etc.) from its own team list. This can be done at any point, even outside Rookie auctions. These Rookies can be signed for the standard cost (not halved, or modified by Star Potential) for a player of that position, and no bidding needs to take place. However, such players are invariably unexceptional, always having -1 Star Potential instead of rolling on the Star Potential modifier table (this already includes the normal Lineman penalty).
    Note that this is not a cost-effective way of recruiting new players, as such a signing will only have a 1 in 36 chance of ever becoming a Star (barring Random Events and/or your team presently having no Stars), and will probably be more expensive than a similar player up for auction (whose base value would be halved for the minimum bid level). Nor will there usually be much competition in the bidding for Linemen with -1 SP: you should be able to sign one for 15,000 or 25,000 if you can afford to be patient. In many circumstances, it may be best to induce Mercenaries or Journeymen, and wait for the next influx of more talented Rookies.
 

Contracts

Blood Bowl player contracts are arcane and formidable documents, which only the bravest lawyers claim to understand. Most sensible Pros are quite happy to trust and accept their team’s interpretation of their contract, cheerfully accept whatever pay the club offers them, and quietly accept the decision if the club chooses to trade them, sell them or pension them off.
    Stars, however, are made of sterner stuff. And so are their lawyers.
    It is quite normal in Blood Bowl for the status of a Star Player’s contract to remain constantly under debate and review between the team’s lawyers and those of the player. Generally, this has no impact upon playing matters, except when the player becomes unhappy and orders his lawyers to force a major Contract Dispute.

Contract Disputes

Contract Disputes arise whenever an already Disillusioned player (Disillusioned is a Star Player Quirk - see Appendix I) would gain that Quirk again. It is also possible for a coach to force a Contract Dispute with a Star - although this would only normally be done if a coach was truly desperate to end a player’s Disillusionment. When a dispute occurs, you must roll on the following table:
 

Contract Resolved!: Incredibly, the player’s contract situation has been resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. The Star loses the Disillusioned Quirk.
Negotiations Deadlocked: The two teams of lawyers have reached total deadlock in their arguments. The Star continues to be Disillusioned, but the contract issue is set aside for now.
Negotiations Stalled: The lawyers’ arguments continue. The Star will continue to play for the team, but remains Disillusioned, and a new roll must be made on the Contract Dispute table in the next inter-match phase (do this in step 4 of the post-match sequence).
Compensation Agreed: The team’s lawyers have demonstrated that the player must stay with the club, but the player’s lawyers have insisted that their Star is due a ‘loyalty’ bonus equal to D6 * 10,000 (double for a Mercenary as usual). If the coach pays this then the Star will no longer be Disillusioned; if he cannot or will not then the Star stays with the team, but remains Disillusioned.
Showdown Talks: The player’s lawyers have managed to demonstrate that their Star must be paid a D6 * 10,000 (double for Mercenary) bonus immediately, or else he will be able to leave the club. Even if he is paid, the Star remains Disillusioned. If the Star is not paid, he leaves the team and becomes a Free Agent as described below.
Loop-hole Discovered: The player’s lawyers have discovered a loop-hole in their Star’s contract, and he immediately exploits it to leave the club. The player becomes a Free Agent as described below.

Retiring (Sacking) a Player

Sometimes a coach isn’t worried about keeping a player - he just wants them off the roster. Pros will always quietly agree to retire, and may become Assistant Coaches according to the usual rules. However, it is often hard to convince a Star that it is time to quit. When you want to retire a Star, roll one dice, add the Star’s Level, and also add one for every Niggling Injury and/or permanent characteristic decrease the player has (the more experienced the player is, and the more long-term injuries trouble him, the more likely he is to decide to hang up his boots). If the modified total is 9 or more, the Star retires as normal and may become a coach. If the total is less than this, the Star is disgusted at your assumption that his career is over, and immediately becomes a Free Agent.

Free Agents

A Star who leaves a team - because of the result of a Contract Dispute or simply because the team chooses to let him go (for whatever reason) or because he refuses to retire - becomes a Free Agent. A Free Agent may choose to become a Freebooter, or he may just look for a new team to sign him permanently.
    Roll one dice for the player and apply the following modifiers:

If the total is 7 or more, then the player has decided to opt for the life of a Freebooter (see the next sub-section below - the more experienced, and greedy, the player is, the more likely he is to become a Freebooter). Otherwise he becomes a Free Agent as follows.
    Teams (except the team the player just quit) can immediately begin bidding for the player’s contract as if for a Rookie at auction. The League Commissioner is responsible for alerting coaches to the availability of Free Agents, should keep track of the bids and decide when the bidding must end. Also as with Rookies, the player will demand a minimum bid for his contract. This minimum bid is equal to the player's value (ie the basic cost of a player of his position, plus an additional sum for each improvement (see PBBL, p 34) plus a further 10,000 per Level of the Quirk if the Star is a Mercenary. So a Star Human Blitzer with +AG and two normal access skills would demand at least 170,000 to join a team: but this might be pushed much higher by the bidding. If the same player was also a Mercenary with Level 2 in the Quirk, the minimum bid would be 190,000.
    Refer to the Tips on Founding an Alternate League section to see which teams a Free Agent will consider joining.
    If, after an extended period, no coach has shown an interest in signing a Free Agent (or hiring a Freebooter) the League Commissioner may decide that the Free Agent becomes a Freebooter instead (or vice versa). If subsequently coaches continue to be totally uninterested in the Star, the Commissioner may eventually decide that he retires or leaves to play in another league.

Example:

Harald Haraldsson, a notorious Star Norse Berserker, has finally become too much of a burden on his side, the Arctic Wanderers. Despite his significant Blood Bowl-ing talents, the fact that Haraldsson possesses the Top Dog Quirk (at Level 1) and the Mercenary Quirk (at Level 2) means that he has become too expensive a burden on the Wanderers' treasury. The team's coach tries to persuade Haraldsson to retire to the coaching staff. Haraldsson has avoided niggling injuries during his career, and has 94 EPs, making him a Level 3 Star (or Super-Star). The coach therefore rolls one dice and adds 3, getting a total of 8 - one short of the total that would have been needed to convince Haraldsson. Instead of retiring, the Berserker now leaves the club.
    Now a roll is made to see whether Harald Haraldsson will become a Free Agent or a Freebooter. One dice is rolled adding 6 (3 for his level as a Star, 2 for his levels of Mercenary, 1 for his level on Top Dog). A total of 9 is rolled, meaning that he becomes a Freebooter (although, indeed, any dice roll would have meant the same result).
    The League Commissioner is informed that Haraldsson should be added to the list of the league's Freebooters. Harald's advances are: +ST, +MA, one double skill, and two normal skills. His match fee (see the next section below) will be 130,000 (90,000 (Base cost of a Norse Berserker) + 50,000 (+ST) + 30,000 (+MA) + 30,000 (double skill) + 40,000 (two normal skills) + 20,000 (Mercenary Level 2), for a grand total of 260,000. This would be his minimum Free Agent bid, and is divided by 2 to get his Freebooter fee). Haraldsson will consider playing for Norse, Chaos, Dwarf or Human teams (see the Allied Team List).

Mercenaries and Journeymen may be induced normally under this system.
    In time, as explained under Contracts above, Star Players generated in your own league may quit their teams and some of them may become Freebooters. Until there are plenty of these around, you may wish to allow the use of Star Player cards as Freebooters.

When a Star Freebooter generated by this league rules system emerges, the League Commissioner must be informed and it will be his job to keep track of the player’s EPs total, characteristic profile, skills, injuries, Quirks, etc. A Star who becomes a Freebooter always loses the Disillusioned and Loyal Quirks, if he possessed them, and gains one Level of the Loner Quirk (gaining the Quirk itself if he did not possess it already).
    The cost to hire a Star Freebooter is equal to half the same Star's minimum free agency fee (as described above). In other words: take the player's value (ie basic positional cost plus modifiers for advances), divide by two, and add a further 5,000 per Level of the Quirk if the Star is a Mercenary. The afore-mentioned Star Human Blitzer would demand 95,000 as his match fee. If more than one team wants to sign the same Star at the same time (eg for the same match) they will have to bid against each other for him!
    As a Star Freebooter gains more EPs, he will gain advances like any other Star - it is the League Commissioner’s job to keep track of this. The coach who currently has the Freebooter under hire should decide what advances to give the player should he gain any, and should roll for any new Quirk - however, the League Commissioner should reserve the right to veto any selection made.

Settling Down

After playing a match with a team, a Freebooter may be tempted to settle down and offer to join them permanently - for a small fee. This will only ever happen if the team he was playing for won the game. Roll one dice after the victory. On a 6 the Freebooter offers to sign permanently for the team, who must pay his usual match fee again if they want him to do so. No other team may put in a bid! This is a one-off opportunity only available to the team who hired the Freebooter - if the team can't or won't pay now, they miss the chance to make the signing.
    A Freebooter who settles down loses one Level of the Loner Quirk (losing the Quirk itself entirely if he only had it at Level 1).

Harald Haraldsson, the Star Norse Blitzer from the previous example, has just played as a Freebooter for the Dwarf Anvils. After helping the dwarves to a handsome victory, a 6 is rolled for Settling Down, meaning that Haraldsson offers to join the Anvils on a permanent basis. During the match, Haraldsson scored one touchdown and caused one casulaty (as well as holding the ball and making an appearance) for a total of 7 EPs. This has already brought his EPs total to 101, meaning that he has gained yet another advance (a normal skill). Therefore he now demands 140,000 to join the dwarves permanently.
    The Anvils notoriously tight-fisted coach, who dithered for a long time over bringing in the Freebooter for a key tournament match, is not willing to splash out to such an extent, especially as he is unwilling to accept the disruption that bringing in a 'foreign' player on a long-term basis may cause. Haraldsson continues his life as a Freebooter.
    After a few more league weeks, no further coaches have shown any interest in hiring Haraldsson for his now quite extortionate fee, so the Commissioner decides that he will become a Free Agent instead. The player's agents begin looking for teams to bid a minimum of 280,000 for the Star's contract, and again he will consider joining Norse, Chaos, Dwarf or Human teams.

Under this system virtually anything can be traded between clubs. This includes players, cash, and coaching staff. However, note that Team Re-rolls and Fan Factor are always absolutely non-transferable.
    These exchanges can be permanent or temporary, and can be conducted in any manner that coaches can agree on - although the League Commissioner should monitor such activities and may wish to ban any dealings which are deemed unacceptable. A coach may never make any exchanges between two teams he runs.
    Paying out cash, or trading Pros, Rookies or staff, is not a big deal for a club. However, signing or selling a Star can have a more significant effect on both the fans and the other players - see Effects of Losing (or Signing) a Star, below.

Reasonable Bids: A number of Random Events refer to reasonable bids being made for Stars. The level of a reasonable bid is equal to the player's value, according to the usual calculation (basic positional cost plus modifiers for improvements). If either party - ie the potential buyer or the potential seller - thinks that this valuation is unreasonable (perhaps because it does not take into account (dis)advantageous Star Quirks), the case may be referred to the League Commissioner, who will make a determination as to what level a reasonable bid should be set at for this Star.
 

Effects of Losing a Star

When a Star leaves a club, either to join another team or to become a Free Agent or Freebooter (but not if one retires to join the coaching staff), this may have wider effects on the team’s other players and on the morale of the supporters.
    Many fans follow a team because of a particular Star rather than due to any intrinsic sense of loyalty. When a Star leaves the team, roll one dice, apply the following modifiers, and look up the result on the table below that:

* If it is not obvious from past grudges whether two teams are rivals, the League Commissioner should make a judgement.
** ie the Star was not drawn from your standard team list

Conversely, the departure of one Star often makes those that remain happier, since these selfish individuals now realise that they will receive a larger share of the attention, rewards and credit in the future. This means that some of them may lose the Disillusioned Quirk, if they have it.
    If the Star who has departed possessed the Leader skill, then the players have lost a captain, and none of them are pleased about it. Otherwise, roll one dice for each Disillusioned Star: on a 1-3 the player loses that Quirk. Any Star who has the same position as the one who departed automatically loses Disillusioned.

Example:

The Deepcrag Boyz, a provincial Orc side, have just sold their Star Black Orc, Narg Dwarfstomper, to the Gouged Eye, the attention of the bigger club having been attracted by the great impression Narg had been making on many opponents’ faces during the last season.
    Monetarily, this has been an excellent deal for the Boyz, whose management’s poor level of numeracy causes constant financial problems, and it has also given Narg the chance to play for one of the most famous Orc teams ever to take to the Blood Bowl field.
    The Boyz’ fans are not so happy. Narg has been Deepcrag’s main attraction for some time. Narg had 38 EPs when he left (a Level 2 Star) making him the most experienced Deepcrag Star, was Loyal (Level 1), and was also a Fan’s Favourite (Level 1), as well as having started his career with the club. A total modifier of +8 is added to a dice roll of 3 to lead to a reduction in Fan Factor of two points: the Boyz may have made a short-term financial gain, but at the long-term cost of a loss of support.
    Amongst Narg’s fellow Stars, Vork Gobsnot - a Thrower - and Grim Painspear - a Black Orc - have been feeling Disillusioned of late. Painspear automatically loses that Quirk: he is now confident that no one will beat him to this season’s fatalities record (as Narg did last year). One dice is rolled for Gobsnot - a 5. The Thrower remains Disillusioned; perhaps he is disappointed that Narg’s considerable frame will no longer be positioned between him and opposing Blitzers on match days, or perhaps he wishes that he was the one to get the chance to play for the Eye.

Effects of Signing a Star

When a new Star joins a team (not by a Rookie or Pro passing a Star Potential roll, nor by the temporary arrival of a Freebooter; these rules only apply when an existing Star is bought or signed as a Free Agent) it often has the effect of raising morale amongst the fans - although it can upset them if the Star is considered to be ‘foreign’ or not committed to the team. Amongst the playing staff, a new arrival can cause new tensions or jealousies.
    Firstly, the arriving Star himself may be affected by his move. Consult the following table to see what roll the player must make on one dice to lose the Disillusioned Quirk (if he had it):

* This applies if the move resulted from any event that affected the player.
** In this circumstance, the player may actually gain the Disillusioned Quirk (but only if he did not already have it) on a dice roll of 5 or more.

To determine the effect of a new Star’s arrival on the fans, roll on the table below with the following modifiers:

* If it is not obvious from past grudges whether two teams are rivals, the League Commissioner should make a judgement.
** ie the Star is not drawn from your standard team list

Now roll one dice for each Star already in your team. On a 6, the player is unsettled by the new arrival, and becomes Disillusioned. A Star who plays in the same position as the arriving player is more likely to feel threatened by his arrival, and will instead become Disillusioned on a 4 or more. A Star who has more than 50 more EPs than the new arrival is unlikely to be concerned, and so subtracts 1 from this roll (ie he will never become Disillusioned unless he plays in the same position).

Narg Dwarfstomper, recently of the Deepcrag Boyz, has arrived to play for the Gouged Eye. The sturdy, reliable (some unkind souls would say stupid) Black Orc had not become Disillusioned while at the Boyz - but even if he had done the prospect of playing for the Eye (a team with a value at least 1,000,000 higher) would soon have cured him of that.
    Narg was always Loyal to his old club, and had become a Fan’s Favourite for his famous ‘chomp’ attack on unsuspecting opponents. One dice is rolled for each of these Quirks: a 2 for the former, and a 6 for the latter. Narg will continue to be Loyal to his new team, but the well-travelled Eye fans will need some more persuading before the Black Orc becomes a cult figure.
    As for the effect on Fan Factor, Narg still has 38 EPs (a Level 2 Star). This is far fewer than Varag Ghoulchewer, the Gouged Eye’s captain and most experienced Star. Most Eye fans have never even heard of Deepcrag, so the two teams are certainly not rivals. The Gouged Eye are, of course, an Orc team, so Narg is not considered ‘foreign’. One dice is then rolled and a +2 modifier added. The result is 6, meaning no appreciable effect on the team’s support: the Eye fans have watched dozens of hopefuls like Narg come and go over the years.
    The Gouged Eye have five other Stars, one of whom (Varag himself) is far too famous and experienced to be worried by the arrival of the likes of Narg. Amongst the other four, one (a Thrower) rolls a 6 and becomes Disillusioned - he is concerned that the management keeps signing Blockers and not receivers for his immaculate passing - and another, a fellow Black Orc, rolls a 5, which is enough for him to also become Disillusioned - he worries that the coach doesn’t think he has been doing a good enough job on the line, and that Narg has been brought in to replace him (perhaps he’s even right).

Random Events

If Stars were simply players with superior abilities then the world would be a much simpler place. The problem with Stars is two-fold: in the first place their talent can go to their heads (as represented by Quirks); and in the second they tend to attract the wrong sort of attention. This latter factor can lead to things happening to them which would never happen to an ordinary Pro (or if it did no one would care), and is represented by Random Events.
    The purpose of the Random Events system is primarily to reflect these crazy happenings that tend to follow Star Players around. These events (along with Star Quirks) are part of the down-side of having Stars on your team and, like Quirks, they are more likely to be bad than good, and there are quite a few mixed blessings and arguable gambles mixed in for good measure.
    These events all represent occurences between matches, and few of them directly effect events on the field of play (except sometimes by meaning that some players do not turn up - for a drive, a half or the whole match). These rules can thus be used in conjunction with any on-pitch handicap or special play system if you wish.

Consult Appendix IV to find the random event table, and the descriptions of the effects of the events. Generate one event per Star on your roster before each match (and a minimum of one event).

Player Position

Firstly it should be repeated that in this league system all Star Players retain their position, and thus still count as normal towards the standard player position limits. This will often mean that the presence of established Stars will make it impossible to bring in promising Rookies who play in the same position as a Star, without parting with one of those Stars (or at least an already competent Pro).
    This is a restriction that is intended to be frustrating and petty: I like to imagine that somewhere there is an army of jobsworth Blood Bowl officials who - instead of cracking down on serious infringements like chainsaws and death-rollers - spend all their time ensuring that no team ever has more than two Throwers.
    The real intent is to force coaches to take difficult decisions: should I let my Star Elf Thrower - who was awesome once, but is now often more trouble than he is worth, although the fans still love him - go, and replace him with a promising Rookie? Should I put in a bid for another side’s Star Blitzer (who they want to sell to raise funds), and prepare to part ways with one of my own team’s oldest and most dependable Pros?
    (Note that in the case of bidding for Rookies, these decisions need not be taken until after the bidding is completed. That is, if a Wood Elf coach (who already has two Throwers) wants to bid for a Rookie Thrower, he is free to do so without sacking one that he already has. However, if he wins the bidding he must get rid of one of his old Throwers, or else withdraw his bid and allow the Rookie to go to the next highest bidder.)
    Also note that these rules also apply when (as can happen under these rules) a player has the chance to change position. Such situations will create even more dilemmas. For example, say your Star Lineman gets the Versatile Quirk, and says he wants to become a Blitzer. This is a great opportunity, since the player should improve in all respects: however, you probably already have two (or four) Blitzers, and some or all of them may be Stars. Now you have to decide whether to part with one of your existing Blitzers, or else take the risk that the Lineman will become Disillusioned. If it hasn’t become clear from reading the rest of these rules, such quandaries are what this alternate system is all about.
    Finally I should also note that there is no limit on the number of Star Players that there may be in a team. However, all coaches who dream of a roster sheet full of Stars should remember that the number of (almost always bad) events a team suffers before each match is equal to the number of Stars in a side - and no team could regularly withstand sixteen (!) such events. (That said, literal 'All-Star' matches, as one-off show-pieces, with Stars drawn from all the teams in the league are a wonderful idea, and recommended to all coaches who are generous enough to give these rules a try.)

Tips on Founding an Alternate League

Assuming you have decided you like them in the first place, clearly there are still quite a few obstacles to setting up a league which uses this set of alternate league rules. The first of these will be to persuade the coaches of your gaming circle that they should give these rules a chance. My first advice is not to try to do so unless they are mostly already seasoned Blood Bowl coaches - this system is sub-titled ‘for jaded coaches’ for a reason.
    If you think these rules would suit your group, then get another coach who you think will understand what these rules are getting at to read them (including the introduction, which is intended to set out clearly the arguments for this system). Once you have a co-conspirator you can work together to persuade everyone else you know to try out this system, and once you have convinced a majority, you can all pressure the sceptical remainder into at least giving it a go.
    This will be a start. However, there remain a few other problems which need to be tackled to get the system to work as is intended. In my experience, in a typical small league of, say, five or six coaches, each coach will tend to choose to coach a different team (ie race) - and if there are two teams of the same race in a league then this is usually just coincidence.
    This creates problems in an Alternate Rules league, since an important part of the system is competition for players: bidding wars for Rookie talents; Star Players who get tapped up by a rival, quit one team to join another, or are sold off to generate revenue by a struggling team. If no house rules are adopted, there will be little of this kind of competition for players: all Wood Elf Rookies will go (cheaply) to the sole Wood Elf team; an Orc Star will quit his team in disgust, only to realise that there is no other team in this league for which he can play. In such a situation the coaches would be losing a lot of what makes this system what it should be.
    However, I do not want to set out a prescription of how coaches must tackle this question, in the way that I have prescribed rules for numerous other situations. There are a number of valid solutions to this problem, and any group of coaches should feel free to choose whichever one suits them best.

What I consider the ideal solution is to agree on a few (probably one or two) ‘core’ team lists, which the majority of coaches will run a team constructed from - generally, throughout these rules, it is assumed that you will be using a solution like this. The other solution is to relax the rules preventing a player from one race from playing for a team drawn from a different race’s team list. Of course, there are a variety of compromises that can be found between these two options.
    Which solution your group of coaches chooses depends fundamentally on whether or not you can convince a majority (I recommend around 50-75%) of coaches to run a ‘core’ race team as their main team. I recommend that races like Humans and Orcs be chosen for the ‘core’ races, since they can adapt to a variety of playing styles. It is okay for a few hold-outs to insist that they have to play Undead (or whatever) as long as a majority agree. If you cannot get such an agreement, then you will have to allow ‘mongrel’ teams if you are going to get the most out of these rules.
    Below I have set out two sample sets of house rules as possible solutions: one using the ‘core’ race system; the other allowing multi-race teams. Please feel free to cherry-pick ideas from these two solutions in constructing your own league.
 

A ‘Core Race’ System

The first thing to do is to select your core races. It is suggested that you should have no more than one core race for every four coaches in your league (hopefully two or three from every four will run a core race team as their primary team).
    The recommended core races are Humans and Orcs, but you should choose yours by consulting all your group’s coaches about their favoured teams. Note that while choosing Goblins, Halflings or even Ogres as a core race might seem like a good idea at the time, the novelty may quickly wear off. If at all possible there should be one ‘good’ core race (eg Humans, Elves, Dwarves) and one ‘evil’ core race (eg Orcs, Chaos, Dark Elves).
    Once you have agreed on the core races, there should not be many more adaptations to be made. Of course, the coaches who have agreed to run a core race team need to stick to their promise, and not allow any secondary team which they may start to displace the core team in their affections.
    Not every coach needs to run a core team. The ‘fringe’ teams may seem to have an advantage (since they have no competition for Rookie signings) but bear in mind tha